Endless War (Complete)

Chapter 27 "The New Plan"

Grim leads me out through the only other exit to the cavern system, and we find a shaded area to sit down. I close my eyes and try to re-acclimate myself to my surroundings. My mind immediately tracks an overhead drone searching for movement and facial recognition of James. There is a camp that has recently moved about five miles to our north. I instantly think about the two soldiers we have down in the caves, and my mind reaches out to the woman again. I see through her eyes that everything is fine, so I allow myself to return to my present location.

"We need to send James back to his dome, they are searching for him. I think that his parents didn't believe that he perished like the guards told them. I want to send the two soldiers below back with him. I will have to access their memories first, as well as accessing James' memory." I feel a bit out of breath as I speak. Using my mind to roam around is a little more tiering when pushing the limits.

"Ok." Grim wraps his arm around me. "But how are you? Did you just pass out, or is there something more going on?" He pulls me toward him and kisses my forehead.

I breath in his scent, despite the dirt and staleness of the caverns, there is another scent present that is just his. It is slightly sweet yet reminds me of the musk of a deer, odd, I have never smelled a deer. I shake my head and re-center my thoughts. I wrap my arms around him and pull him into a kiss. My hands run through his hair and down to his hair line, where if he were chipped, I would feel the small button that opens the port. I pull away and let out a sigh of relief.

"What was that?" Grim tilts his head and looks at me with accusing eyes.

"I was just making sure, that you were real." I reply.

"What do you mean real?" He pulls further away from me, and I try to prevent it, only to fail.

"I didn't faint, I was accessed by the system. I felt like my brain was hacked. I am not real, you were right, I am a program designed for the sole purpose of bringing down the system. I was checking for a port, according to the system most people are chipped, I wanted to know if you were running a program to get close to me. James didn't run away from the dome, he was following his program, I was meant to find him at the station. The guy that was trying to rape me, would have lead me there if you hadn't intervened." I try not to cry, but the tears force their way out.

"Your mother didn't program the chip she gave to my mother, she was led to it after she escaped the dome. The system helped her escape and then led her to the chip then to my mother, who was just a random soldier within a reasonable distance from where your mother found the chip. My mother continued the program, and your mother was released, to observe The Knowing." I confess.

"Wait, you are saying that my mother is a spy! What the fuck! I..." Grim stands up and walks away from me. "No, you are the system, you are a program, you are not real, leave my mother out of this!" He kicks the dirt and storms off back into the cavern system.

Anger, he is angry. I probe his mind, I see myself in his head pleading with him as my skin boils away leaving behind an android. My chest feels as if it is being crushed, heartache, this emotion is heartache.

"Get out of my head." I hear him yell from inside the cave.

I close my eyes, his mother is talking with the soldiers below. He will go to her. He will confront her. I need to be there for her, she will not take this well. I should have known that he wouldn't have taken it well. I feel the system as it interferes with my thought process giving me a map of the cavern system, gathered from his mothers memory. I can get there before he does, I can break it to her gently and protect her from her son's anger.

I run into the cavern system, blackness surrounds me as I follow the maze of caverns in my mind, I am able to jump over all of the stalagmites that would have otherwise made me fall. I make it to Sharon quicker than I thought possible. She turns to me in the torchlight, confused. "Where is Sebastian? How did you get here?"

"Come with me, please." She doesn't understand but follows me anyway. I lead her into a small space where she would go to think on her own, no one knows she found this little space. There is a small hole in the cavern wall that illuminates the tiny space. The sound will not carry.

She is still confused and wants to ask me how I found this place, it took her years to discover it. "I know, it took a while to find this spot but there is something you need to know. I told Grim, um Sebastian not thinking of how it would affect him. I am so sorry, I should have never told him. It wasn't hurting anything with him not knowing." I start to hyperventilate, fear, this is fear.

She wraps me in a hug trying to calm me. I hug her back and whisper the story in her ear.

We release one another and Sharon reaches back to feel her neck. "There it is. I had no idea." She presses on the button and the port opens, then she presses it again to close it. "It makes so much sense now. I don't know anything about programming. I always wondered how I programmed a chip for your mother. Am I a spy?"

I shake my head no. "No, you are not a spy. You are like me. We were programmed to bring an end to the war. That is what you have always worked toward and that is what will happen. I will end this, but know it may end me. I can't tell Gr... Sebastian this or he would not let me go. If I don't survive this, you must find him, and tell him that I loved him, for what it is worth."

I take a deep breath and release it slowly. "We will release the female soldier with the boy James, she will return him to his father. I will take the other soldier and bring this system down."

"Goodby, Sharon, you will know if I succeed. You will receive a message from the system, and then it will burn out the chip. Tell him how I feel after that, I don't think I will survive for long." I hug her tightly and she grabs my arm. "You have to let me go. The system must fall, the program must run its corse."

She releases me and I go to get the soldiers and James on my way out of the cavern.